This is a very interesting question, because one of my goals with DeafInPrison.com is to get some interviews with wardens and corrections officers. Going by the stories I’ve gotten in some of our inmate letters – from deaf inmates – the treatment is nothing other than abysmal.

These people are commonly beaten, raped, and confined to solitary. I want desperately to be afforded the opportunity to get the other side of the story, but have been unable to, thus far.

There are obvious cases of violence, intimidation and even murder to protect someone’s job or position. The Deaf are afraid of recriminations if they report the guards. One common form of this is to use the mental health system as a stick / carrot, kind of thing.

On one hand, a prisoner who doesn’t go with the flow can be written up as mentally ill…

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In a case where I interviewed a deaf female prisoner, she commented that she was frequently taunted by female guards who would say, “In here, you are not special…you will be treated like everyone else.”
“Dont’ think you are special and should receive breaks…because you wont.”

"If you think it is so easy to be a critic, so difficult to be a poet or a painter or film experimenter, may I suggest you try both? You may discover why there are so few critics, so many poets." - Pauline Kael

My Life of Crime, Murder, Missing People and such! Above all else, never forget the victim, that the victim lived, had a life and was loved. The victim and their loved ones deserve justice, as does society.